A tourism academic says Fiji's impending hike in airport departure tax is likely to go unnoticed by most tourists because it will be included in the airfare.
As part of its budget, the Government has announced the tax will increase from 81-US dollars to 108 from January next year.
The tax will include a five-dollar environment levy.
New Zealand's Tourism Research Institute director, professor Simon Milne, says the tax increase is fairly substantial but it is not likely to have a big impact.
"I doubt it will have a major lasting impact in terms of visitor numbers. What I would think is that the tourism industry there will be disappointed because they will see it as another cost that is being added and tourists are always a very easy target when it comes to generating additional government tax but the bottom line is this is an embedded tax."
Professor Simon Milne also says he would like to see more details about where the environmental levy will go.